Darren Mackie and Peter Pawlett last week rolled back the years as they joined our Under 10, 11 and 12 Youth Academy squads for a training session.

Both players came through the Youth system at the club before breaking in to the first team and they were delighted to see some of our rising stars in action.

Darren said: "We both fondly remember all the encouragement and expertise the coaches gave us at that age so we were more than happy to come down and spend a little bit of time with the kids. They all showed great ability and a real desire to develop their skills which was great to see. Hopefully we'll see some of these youngsters rising through the ranks and making their break through in the coming years."

The Under 10 - 12s are at the halfway stage of the season and are looking forward to their youth performance fixtures starting again in February.

The young dons squads are made up from players from throughout Scotland who are based at the club's centres in Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow along with Aberdeen. All players follow a carefully designed training programme at this age with the primary focus on technical development and being able to express themselves on the ball. This season has also seen the Aberdeen based players train in the Sports Village, which has been a massive development to assist with the players progress.

Scottish FA Community Coach & Under 12s coach, Gavin Levey said 'It was great to have Darren and Pete at training on Monday evening. Peter explained that he'd trained with the club at the Youth Academy from Under 10s and he's now doing what he always dreamed of doing - playing in the first team'.

'We have a lot of very exciting players at the moment in the young age groups and they have been doing very well so far this season'. The emphasis on dominating 1v1 situations is something that is stressed from a very early age at the club and the continued technical development and focus on this area is crucial to nurturing the talent that these young players have'.

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